1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to an apparatus for removably attaching an advertising sign to the side of a truck or other support surface. More particularly, it relates to a mounting apparatus that, when used with a truck, does not increase the effective width of the truck.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The number of billboards available for use by the outdoor advertising industry is shrinking, for several reasons. Many government entities are ruling that billboards are "nonconforming structures," for example, and providing for amortizing periods. Road rights-of-way are being widened, developers are utilizing roadside land for alternate uses, and so on. Nonetheless, demand for outdoor advertising space remains strong.
What is needed, then, is a new platform for outdoor, i.e., billboard-type advertising.
The side panels of conventional trucks, semitrailers, and other types of trucks (hereinafter referred to collectively as trucks) are approximately the same size as billboards; accordingly, if such space could be put to advantageous use, such side panels could serve as an additional platform for outdoor advertising space.
A few advertisers have tried painting advertising copy and artwork directly onto the side panels of trucks. The copy, typically, includes a company's name, its sloqan, a picture, or the like. Painted advertising copy is acceptable, however, only if the message is substantially permanent; frequent changes of advertising messages through repainting is clearly impractical. Thus, a company whose primary business is not trucking using its own private truck fleet might find it practical to paint the company's name, artwork, and slogan on all trucks of the fleet, but the company will not be able to economically change its advertising copy (e. g., to promote different products) during the various seasons of the year. This restricts the company to unchanging and therefor less effective advertising. Accordingly, painting is seldom used as a means for applying advertising copy to a truck.
A much more common technique includes the truckside application of a pressure-sensitive adhesive substrate upon which an advertising message has been imprinted by electrostatic, screenprint, or other means. Due to the size of the trucksides, these advertising panels are usually prepared in numerous smaller panels which are adhered individually to the truckside as a mosaic (in mosaic fashion).
Alternatively, a single panel or a small number of panels may be used if the message is not designed to cover the entire side of the truck.
It is time-consuming and expensive to install the pressure sensitive adhesive panels. Moreover, it is difficult to remove them if it is desired to change the message. Furthermore, the advertising substrate is destroyed by removal, which limits its use to one application.
What is needed, then, is a means that would enable private truck fleet owners to change their truck-side advertising copy for seasonably-sensitive (Christmas, etc.) product promotions. Specific products or advertising tie-ins with vendors to retail establishments could also be promoted more easily.
Moreover, there are many For Hire Common Carrier truck fleets, i.e., trucks owned by trucking companies or individual owner-operators, that are used to transport goods of many different companies. Therefore, it is not practical to apply advertising signs having any degree of permanency to trucks of this type. Thus, the valuable advertising space on the sides of such trucks is underutilized.
Recent developments in the outdoor advertising (billboard) industry include the use of single piece reinforced vinyl fabric sheets as the substrate upon which an advertising message may be hand painted or otherwise applied. Advances in computer technology, including ink-let and other digital printing systems, have also enabled the application of intricate advertising messages and designs onto such substrate.
However, the industry still has not developed an optimal means for quickly attaching and detaching such substrate to the side panels of trucks.
Several inventors have developed systems for facilitating the temporary attachment of an advertising message to the side of a truck. An earlier construction having some similarity to the present disclosure appears in U.S. Pat. No. 5,373,655 to Suzuki. A poster in the form of a vinyl or fabric sheet is held in position by a structure that includes a sliding track or rail, a frame, a rope, and tensioning means including tension adjusters.
Although the Suzuki and other early changeable copy advertising panels perform their intended functions, they are difficult and time-consuming to install if unskilled labor is used. Some of the earlier designs also detract from the appearance of the truck. For all of these reasons, the earlier designs have not met with substantial acceptance in the marketplace.
Another serious shortcoming of all of the known devices for attaching substrates to trucks is that such devices increase the effective width of the truck to which they are attached. All states and the federal government have maximum width restrictions applicable to all over the road vehicles. Many trucks are manufactured to have the maximum width allowable under such laws. Thus, the addition of any non-safety-related hardware to the side of such a truck results in violation of such laws.
What is needed, then, is a removably mounted advertising substrate for use on a truck and a novel means for quickly and easily installing, adjusting, or removing such substrate that does not require skilled labor. The advertising substrate, once installed, should not flap in the wind, nor should its attachment means detract from the appearance or function of the truck. Most importantly, the hardware for installing the substrate should not cause the overall width of the truck to exceed the leqally allowable width, i.e., it should not increase the effective width of the truck.
Many trucks have a recess formed in their frame along a longitudinally-extending uppermost edge of their side walls. This recess may be used advantageously to harbor hardware that grasps the uppermost end of a substrate so that such hardware does not increase the effective width of the truck. However, no such recess is available along the vertically extending corners at the rearward end of the side walls. Accordingly, any hardware attached to the side of the truck to engage the trailing end of a substrate will necessarily jut out and increase the effective width of the truck. Nor can such hardware be secured to the rear wall of a truck equipped with hingedly-mounted doors, because the hinges interfere with such hardware.
Thus, there is a need for a mounting means that could engage the vertically-extending trailing edge of a substrate without adding to the effective width of a truck. The needed mounting means would also be free from interference by hinges in trucks having hingedly-mounted rear doors.
However, in view of the pertinent art at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in such art how the needed apparatus could be provided.